It’s not difficult for Jared Papazian to remember the reason he first started training in the classes that would eventually lead to a mixed-martial-arts career.

To put it bluntly, he was embarrassed.

“I was a sophomore in high school,” Papazian told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “It was right after football practice, and I was about to take a shower, but I saw one of my teammates going through people’s lockers. I confronted him, and we got in a fight.

“About a month later, I was at the mall at the movie theater, and the guy comes up with his older brothers and their friends, like 10 of them. I was 15 at the time, and these guys were 17, 18, 19. They put my brother in a storage room and locked it, and they just jumped me.”

Papazian remembers the crowd around that fight outside the movie theater at about 30 or 40 people. He was upset that he lost, but what chance did he have against 10? He was more embarrassed that others watched it happen.

Finding a gym near his house in West Hills, Calif., Papazian went to work with revenge on his mind, but it eventually became much more. The 23-year-old, who was a high school baseball and football player and dabbled in martial arts from a young age, has started his MMA career with a 14-6 record with the 135-pound King of the Cage belt on his resume.

Considered a top up-and-coming prospect in the division, he has won eight of his past nine fights. His lone loss in that stretch came in a short-notice bout against Jimmie Rivera, who held the KOTC 135-pound title at the time but later vacated it.

Papazian stepped in, won the belt and – perhaps even more importantly – won his family over to the idea that MMA could be his career. After recently finishing up a four-fight contract with King of the Cage, Papazian is left waiting for his next opportunity, and many think he could eventually challenge at the highest levels, including the UFC.

“I’m staying ready for when the right opportunity comes up,” he said. “I just have to wait for the right time.”

Motivation to train

Papazian was born and raised in West Hills in a family that liked athletics. His most significant relative in the MMA world is his cousin, UFC veteran War Machine (formerly known as Jon Koppenhaver. He also has a grandfather who played professional baseball and a father who was a strong high school athlete.

By age 4, Papazian was out playing whatever sports he could find. When he was 5, he took his first tae kwon do class, and he trained until he became more interested in baseball and football.

“I was focusing more on the traditional American sports,” he said.

It stayed that way through his early years of high school, and even though he didn’t maintain steady tae kwon do training, he said the baseball and football experiences helped him with his later training.

“I had to learn to be dedicated,” he said. “It kept me in shape, made me a better athlete because I played those sports.”

He got back into training, though, out of anger and embarrassment. Following the incident at the movie theater, he said his intention was to find each member of the group that held him down and kicked him and finish the fights with all of them.

The nearby gym included Muay Thai classes, so he signed up. He admits he wasn’t one of the best at first, and his motivation eventually turned into thoughts of taking fights in Muay Thai or MMA.

“My idea was not to do this professionally, but do it to stay in shape when I was out of high school,” he said. “It just became a bigger part of my life.”

Becoming a champion

The trouble was finding fights. The amateur MMA world in California was less organized at that time, so Papazian and fighters like him had to sign up mainly for smokers or some in-house competitions in the gyms.

Eventually tiring of that routine – sometimes not even being able to strike beyond a slap – Papazian thought he would try a professional fight. He wanted the feeling of a real fight experience.

He was 20 when he took his first pro fight in 2008. He had mixed results and was 4-4 through his first eight fights. But he continued broadening his training and adding new skills to his routine, and he started winning.

By the time Papazian was 11-5, King of the Cage became interested. For its February 2011 show in San Bernadino, Calif., the promotion needed an opponent for Rivera, who held the 135-pound title. Papazian was asked on three weeks’ notice.

“It was a very, very close fight,” he said. “I had people telling me then and I’ve had people tell me since that I might’ve won, but the judges gave Jimmie the decision.”

Not long after, Rivera was added to the initial group of 32 fighters on “The Ultimate Fighter 14,” which vacated the title. Organizers matched up Papazian and Abel Cullum to battle for the belt, and this time the decision went Papazian’s way.

He has made one successful title defense, against Marvin Garcia in September, which completed his four-fight deal. Feeling he can be as competitive as any 135-pounder, Papazian hopes his title and its successful defense draws more interest.

If nothing else, Papazian finally has his family interested. At first, his mother and father didn’t like the idea of him fighting, but when he returned from Oklahoma after winning the title in June, it was a different atmosphere in the house.

“There were balloons and a cake all ready when I got home,” he said. “They’re very supportive, and I feel like I’m in a good position right now. I just need to keep fighting and prove it.”

Award-winning newspaper reporter Kyle Nagel is the lead features
writer for MMAjunkie.com. His weekly “Fight Path” column focuses on the
circumstances that led fighters to a profession in MMA. Know a fighter
with an interesting story? Email us at news [at] mmajunkie.com.

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